What to Expect
by ZareEraz
Summary: Fem!Watanuki/Doumeki. Kimihiro and Shizuka are in for an unexpected surprise when the seer starts to feel horribly sick, and not just any old kind of sick. Oneshot, fluff.


A/N: IIIIIIIIII LLLLLLIIIIIIVVVVVVEEEEEEEE! Hey, ZareEraz here! I'm getting back into a writing mood so bear with me! The idea for this fic was suggested by twistedsister-emogirl who basically told me to get my butt in gear, so shout to them! :3 I hope you all like it! Let me know what you think in the review section! Enjoy!

What to Expect

"Kimihiro…you don't look so good." Shizuka said, watching his wife pick at her food, her face starting to look a little green. They were sitting in their favorite burger joint, having lunch, when she started to look like she was going to throw up all over the table – hence why she had only nibbled on her burger and sipped at her soda instead of enjoying a meal that she hadn't had to cook.

"I don't feel so good." She grumbled, moodily rolling her eyes at her husband. Lately, that seemed to be all that she'd do for Shizuka, either that or huff at him or grump at him or fall asleep on him when they were spending time together. Normally, the archer would just chalk it up to Kimihiro being Kimihiro, but this funk that she'd been in for a couple of days wasn't going away and now it was worse. And the woman was nearly throwing up on the table to top it all off.

Kimihiro had been discontented with almost everything in her life the last few days, and she could tell that her husband was worried about her (and probably a little peeved with her attitude as well) but she just couldn't get over whatever was making her feel sick. She had been exhausted at work with Yuko and irritable everywhere else, even when she was with Shizuka, which she usually enjoyed. She couldn't sit still in the restaurant, her body ached, she was fatigued and she couldn't stand the smell of cooking meat at the moment, the scent making her stomach roil into knots. If she hadn't been in public, the raven would've slumped to the tile floor to cool her heated skin, but she couldn't do that here. Only in the safety of her own bathroom. And speaking of bathroom, the need to pee overrode her desire to hack up her nearly empty stomach on the table – but only for a moment – so she was going to take advantage of what little time she did have.

"I have to pee." Kimihiro said bluntly, getting up out of her seat and hightailing it to the bathroom. Shizuka watched her go with his version of a concerned expression on his face, and mostly that meant that his eyebrows moved inward and down about one millimeter and that was it. Kimihiro made it to the bathroom no problem and thankfully found the place empty. She slunk into a stall and went to hang up her purse to do her business, but in her haze of battling nausea and having to pee, she dropped her bag and spilled the contents of her purse all over the floor. "Shit. Goddammit." The woman muttered to herself and quickly bent down to clean up the mess before anything rolled away from her. _Wallet, check. Keys, check. Train pass, check. Shopping list for Yuko, check. Lip balm, check. Shopping list for Shizuka, check. Extra tampon, check. Shopping list for home, check…why the hell do I have so many shopping lists!?_ The woman took a moment to crazily run her hands through her messy hair and lament the endless stomachs of her boss and husband before grabbing the rest of her crap, her fingers catching on a forgotten object that she had tucked away in her bag.

It was a pregnancy test.

Kimihiro picked up the slim box in its little baggy by her fingertips, wondering when she'd put it in her purse. She thought about it for a moment and decided that it was a few months after she'd been married, her over-prepared disposition suggesting that she keep it with her just in case anything happened. Now that she thought about it, she'd left one in the temple's bathroom and one at Yuko's house. The woman shook her head, getting herself back on track to pick up her mess, but the thought that she should use the test kept poking her as she put her purse back together – the test itself sitting on the tank of the toilet. The seer stood once her purse was in order again, hanging it up properly this time before slipping her pants off and sitting down, the pregnancy text somehow back in her hands without her having consciously thought about picking it up. She was staring at the stupid pink box, her fingers two inches away from pulling it out of the clear baggy and opening up the box.

"This is stupid." She said to herself. "I'm not pregnant." _Shizuka always wears condoms – I told him from day one of our marriage that I didn't want children anytime soon – and I'm on birth control. Well, there I did run out of pills a few weeks ago but that was only a few days and I don't think we had sex…I'm not pregnant. I can't be._ But that didn't stop her from opening up the test anyway and using it as she went to the bathroom, just curious, she told herself, trepidation creeping its way into her stomach over the nausea. She finished peeing on the test and finished going to the bathroom and cleaned up as best she could with one hand, her fingers trembling as she waited for the results. The test had started working, the first little window having generated a blue horizontal line that let her know that it was in working order. Now she just had to wait a few minutes to get her results. Those few minutes passed in silence and nobody came into the bathroom, leaving Kimihiro alone.

It was during those quiet moments that the raven thought about where she was in life right at the moment and why having a child wasn't such a bad idea now. She'd been married for three years and she was twenty four so it wasn't uncommon to start a family at her age, but she'd been avoiding it as much as possible. She knew that Shizuka wanted kids, and had been suggesting that they try to have one for a little while now, but she'd shut him down every time, gently of course. She just wasn't ready…especially with her… _disposition_. Children were fine with her…it was just _her_ kids she was worried about. But contemplating time was over as the results started to appear on the test. Kimihiro watched the second window like a hawk and got her answer.

The second window of her pregnancy test had a pink plus sign in it – she was pregnant.

She gasped, nearly dropping the test onto the floor before recovering, placing the used test and its box back in the baggy and disposing of it in the sanitary napkin garbage can. That done, her stomach really decided to roil and she flipped round on the toilet to heave into the bowl, throwing up what lunch and breakfast she'd eaten that was still in her stomach. With her body in turmoil, her head aching and her heart racing, Kimihiro started to cry, her tears falling into the toilet as she flushed it. She reined it in quickly, using her iron will to hold herself together, still breathing heavily as she collected her bag, her mouth tasting like bile, her stomach still in knots. _I'm pregnant. I'm pregnant._ Any happiness she had felt (which wasn't much to begin with) was completely overshadowed by a paralyzing fear that wracked her body. She was unable to move or even think for a few minutes, until she kicked herself mentally and got herself to breathe regularly again. _No stop that. Don't think about it. You're going to walk out of this stall and wash your hands. Then rinse your mouth. Then you're going to go outside and not cry – just get Shizuka – and hopefully he's eaten your lunch so we can just leave. You're not going to cry on the train. You're not going to tell him until we get home, but you're not going to cry as we walk there or as he asks you how you're feeling. You're not going to cry when you tell him either. He'll be so happy, but you can't cry. You can't cry. Don't do it. Just go out there and wash your hands, rinse your mouth. Start with that._

And she did just that, walking out of the stall and washing her hands and rinsing her mouth. She repeated her list to herself as she fixed her hair somewhat, at least making her ponytail presentable and then walked back to the table where she'd left her husband. Shizuka was waiting for her, eating her burger since she obviously hadn't wanted it. He spotted her the second she'd walked out of the bathroom, looking a little more haggard and a little paler than when she went in. He instantly shoved the rest of the burger into his mouth (not one to waste food) and gathered up their trash as his wife tottered over. He held out his hand to her, knowing that something was wrong without having to ask or have her say a word and she took it, wincing as her sweaty palm took his dry one, hoping that he wasn't grossed out by it. They left right after that, Shizuka throwing away the trash and placing the food tray on the pile with the rest of the used trays before escorting his wife outside.

"Where?" He asked, letting Kimihiro decide where she wanted to go.

"Home." She croaked, wanting the safety of the temple and the peace of being out of public. The archer nodded, heading in the direction of their home as they walked.

Kimihiro was in a daze the whole time, fighting to keep her nausea in check, her vision blurry as well – from tears or her headache she wasn't sure – and trusting that her husband could get her home safely. The train station was crowded for that time of afternoon, the crush of people making the raven even sicker as the couple pushed their way to the front for the next arrival. It was hot and crowded and unbearable, and the station stank of a spirit that had probably died in a train accident – the putrid smell nearly bringing the woman to her knees. Thankfully the spirit, wherever it was, didn't sense her or pester her, Shizuka's presence warding it off as they boarded the train when it pulled up. Inside the train was hardly better than the station, but at least she got to sit down after Shizuka had found her a seat, helping her into it and then standing in front of her to protect her from people falling on her in the event of a sudden stop or turn, stoically holding onto a ceiling handle to balance himself as the car filled up. They were off a few moments later, the train speeding along the track to the next station.

Kimihiro closed her eyes to let herself rest, her mind still trying to wrap around the idea that she was pregnant, the she was carrying a tiny, tiny baby inside her body. Her hand unconsciously fluttered behind the purse on her lap, pressing against her belly as if trying to feel the child inside of her. Of course it couldn't, but it felt right to leave her hand there anyway. The movement didn't go unnoticed and Shizuka's nearly-unreadable eyes tracked the movement.

"Are you okay?" He asked, trying to read his wife's expression. With her expressive eyes closed, it was harder to tell what she was feeling but she was clearly sick and in pain and something else was bothering her now. "Are you going to be sick?"

"No to both." came the short, sluggish reply. Being a man of few words, the brunette dropped the conversation, having gotten his answers. They didn't speak for the rest of the trip; the only thing that changed was that Kimihiro leaned on her husband more heavily as they walked back to the temple, her stomach still roiling but manageable. It was a relief, to see home when it came into sight down the street and the raven picked up her pace, anxious to get inside, and the first thing she did once she got there was rush to the bathroom to retch again, having lied on the train to spare Shizuka the worry. As she emptied the contents of her nearly empty stomach, Shizuka waited patiently outside the door, letting the raven take care of herself before he asked for an explanation. When his wife emerged from the bathroom, looking slightly less pale and having brushed her teeth to get rid of the taste of bile once again, he followed her to the kitchen when she turned in that direction, holding her hand comfortingly. She gave him a faint smile, but then that worried look that had possessed her eyes the whole way home still lingered in their depths. Kimihiro fell into her normal seat at the kitchen table and slumped over with her head in her hands, hiding her face from her husband as she figured out the best way to tell him that she was pregnant without sounding too disappointed about it. _It's not like I'm mad I'm pregnant…it's just…_

"Want to tell me what's going on?" Shizuka asked, opening the conversation again. Kimihiro lifted her head, her mismatched eyes meeting his own golden ones – his steady gaze that was normally either comforting or irritating was disturbingly firm and worried at the same time, the silence that accompanied that gaze heavy in the air, pressing down on her already weighted body – and under that pressure, it just burst out of her, shocking them both.

"I'm pregnant." The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them, try to make them sound less afraid, less horrified, but as she'd learned over the years, once words are set free from the mind and mouth, they create ripples and have power over the people they are spoken to or the people they are released from. Saying those two words were enough to put her husband into a shocked silence (which was _very_ difficult to do since his silences were rarely shocked) and had the raven dissolving into tears, great sobs shaking her body."Damn…" She sobbed. "I…told myself not…to cry." Her breath was shallow and her chest heaved as she sank back onto the table, wiping at her eyes from under her glasses, smudging the lenses and skewing the frames on her nose.

Shizuka couldn't believe what he'd just been told, his first reaction was a warm pride and happiness swirling around in his chest, happy that his wife was going to have their child, but said wife was in tears, and they weren't tears of joy. She was crying sorrowfully, as if pained by the fact that she was pregnant. That wasn't right – this should be a happy moment, one that they should be ecstatic for – but she wasn't. It was all wrong. The archer finally recovered himself and went to comforting the crying woman.

"Why are you crying?" He asked softly, walking around the table and dragging a chair over to hers and sitting down in it. The man took his wife's hand in his own, the other reaching up to take off her glasses, helping her wipe at her tears. "This is good. We're going to have a baby." Once the first wave of tears had been wiped, he pulled Kimihiro into his arms, kissing her softly on the forehead, trying to calm her down a little so she could speak, so she could tell him what was bothering her about it. Kimihiro kept crying, but she was valiantly trying to stifle her sobs, using her husband's warmth her strong arms to make her feel even a little bit better. He deserved and explanation as to why she was so sad, she knew that, but it was so hard to tell him – knowing that she'd been through the same sadness for most of her life. She let it slip out of her again, in a moment when she'd quieted down, when her sobs subsided and she took a breath to at least tell him why.

"What if the baby…turns out like me?" She whispered, her voice barely audible. "What if I…can't protect our baby…from my curse…what if our child has to suffer like I did…plagued by things that it shouldn't even know exist…what if…what if…"

Years of loneliness stretched out behind her – bitterness, pain and alienation haunted her every step. Very few people – humans – accepted her as she was, and the rest avoided her on the street or made fun of her during school because she was the "freak." And the others who weren't humans and that did accept her were spirits themselves, their brethren being the ones who'd been a part of the world she only got glimpses of – physically haunting her and making her life a living hell. She pressed her hand to her stomach again, as if she could feel the tiny life inside of her, the years of suffering that her child could endure or succumb to yawning out in front of her. She couldn't let her child suffer like she had; isolated and cut off because they were different from everyone else. There was only so much she'd be able to do as a parent, even in normal circumstances, and there was even less she'd be able to do to protect her baby if they could see and attract spirits – because all she'd be able to do was compound the problem by drawing even more spirits towards herself.

Kimihiro felt trapped, trapped by her loathsome curse once again, the weight of her lineage and the responsibility that she could have in making her child's life hell on earth hanging over her head like a sword about to drop. She couldn't do this. She couldn't let a child that would be forced into endless torment and isolation be born into this world if all they would do was suffer in this life. It would be better to end its existence now before it started, better than to let such harm come to an innocent child. She'd be a monster if she let this happen. But…but still…she…she wanted the baby…she wanted to have the family that she'd never had growing up. She wanted to have holidays spent with lots of children around her, and their families too eventually, and have birthdays where she wasn't alone anymore. Then she'd only had a few of those days in her life and all of them recent…the raven wanted to be surrounded by the people she loved more than she cared to admit…and this baby was already one of those people. She didn't know what to do – stuck between accepting her own selfish desires or forsaking her child, to spare them the pain that she'd had to endure her whole life. During this time she stayed quiet in her husband's arms, only crying softly now as she fought with her own emotions, and trying to stop crying while only thinking of things that made her cry more.

Shizuka just held his wife tightly, sensing her turmoil in her hushed sobs and understanding just how hard this was for her. She'd been alone most of her life, and had only gained friendship and love a few years ago. Even the peace they'd had as a married couple had been easily interrupted by spirits desiring Kimihiro's power and flesh and the seer's own imagined inadequacies and self loathing had made times like those very difficult for her to open back up to the rowdy woman he knew her to be. But even as the archer held his wife, he rolled his eyes once, silently calling her and idiot because she was forgetting something important.

"This child is also half mine, you know." Shizuka said, petting his wife's head, pulling out her pony tail to comb his fingers through her hair to help calm her down. Her head came up a little from his chest, her mismatched eyes and watery eyes looking up to his face. Her cheeks were stained with tears and her make-up was running down her skin as well, but she was still heart achingly beautiful to the man, her sadness just another facet to the woman she'd become over the years. "He could turn out like me instead, able to ward of spirits without even thinking about it."

"Yeah," Kimihiro sniffed. "You don't do any thinking, period." _That's my girl,_ Shizuka smiled internally as a bit of his wife's sass came back, even if she was still crying.

"That power resides in my blood as your ability resides in yours." Shizuka continued, ignoring the jab at his intelligence. "There's nothing in this universe that says our baby has to have your powers alone or mine either. They could have both or none. They might turn out normal because of this – unable to see or attract, unable to ward off. There's an infinite amount of futures for this baby – don't you want to see them?" The archer gave a rare smile, kissing his lover softly. Kimihiro spoke after their lips had parted, comforted by her husband's words even if she was still scared shitless and worried so much her stomach's knots were in knots.

"Yuko said something like that once, about there being an infinite amount of futures for a person, endless opportunities to change their fate and shapes their lives." The seer's head drifted back down to Shizuka's chest, pressing against his warm body and trying to stifle her tears.

"Yuko's right. She's got a point."

"Yuko's always right." Kimihiro rolled her eyes sarcastically.

"I'm always right too." Shizuka added, his voice sounding self-assured.

"Like hell you are." The raven hissed, her normal insults not having the impact they usually had due to her heart not being in them.

"Ouch." The man replied, resting his chin on the head below him. He turned back to the important bits of the conversation, leaving the normal banter behind. "I won't say that there's nothing to worry about, but it'll all be okay. I don't know what to expect just as much as you do, but I know that we can do it together. Our baby's going to be fine – just as long as he doesn't turn out as difficult as you are."

"Or as annoying as you are." The woman quipped, pulling away from him to wipe her tears away as best she could. She felt a little better now, the looming terror finally subsiding as it always had now that she had Shizuka with her. "I'm going to go clean up." She said, standing up. Her stomach flopped again, her morning sickness rearing its head again. "And throw up." She slapped her hand over her mouth and quickly ran out of the room, leaving Shizuka alone for the second time that day.

That's when it hit the archer.

 _I'm going to be a father._

That realization had the man falling out of his chair, literally floored by the prospect of having a child, breaking his stoic demeanor for once.

"Shizuka?" Kimihiro's head popped back into the kitchen, having heard a crash, a questioning look on her slightly green face as she spotted her husband on the floor.

"Took a wrong step." He replied smoothly, standing up and brushing off his pants as if nothing had happened.

"Okay, if you say so." The raven replied, a sly smile on her face, as if she knew exactly what had happened. And she did, unfortunately for him, but she had no time to tease him in that moment as she was about to throw up again and continued on to the bathroom in time to make it to the toilet.

End

A/N: And there you go! See you all later!


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